This review just in from my pal AJ, mother of two, soon to be three (brave woman!). Thanks, AJ!
I embarked on the cloth diapering train to lessen the environmental impact we are making with our third kid on the way. We still don’t know what we will drive to fit three car seats, we have no idea how to pay for college for three…but, this seemed surmountable. The only flaw in my plan: I am trying out cloth diapering on my 37 lb, 21 month old boy who is old enough to complain, but not with actual words. He is the test project for G3, as we call the next installment baby.
I only know two girlfriends who use cloth diapers. When I queried my group of mom-pals after reading about Fuzzi Bunz on this site, I received some hilarious emails asking if that was something ‘special’ my husband and I were looking into.
Here is the answer for the curious and hesitant: Babyworks. This is a family owned company started by a mom of three, 18 years ago. They have an exhaustive downloadable catalog that covers everything from cloth diaper brands, cost breakdown as well as health, environmental and economic reasons for choosing cloth diaper systems. They have detailed instructions on how to handle your diapers at home, even specifics for those of us with front loading washers. You read this and you too will know the difference between Fuzzi Bunz and the ultimate Birdseye.
The best part is the Diapering Sample Kit. Each item in the kit is sold at it’s lowest discount price (e.g., the Bumkin is at the 6-or-more price), and each item is individually returnable. They choose the correct size of each product based on the weight and build of your baby (or newborn size if not here yet). The kit contains: 1 Fuzzi Bunz or Bum Genius pocket diaper with microterry insert, 1 Bumkin all in one, 1 Kissaluv fitted diaper, 1 Hemp Fleece Diaper Doubler, 3 Prefolds (1 Chinese, 1 Birdseye, 1 Hemp), 1 contour diaper, 1 Bummi Super Whisper Wrap, and 1 Poly Nikky or Niji diaper cover. As far as sizing goes, you can choose “Expecting/unknown size”, or within each weight range, choose petite (slim/smaller than average); “average”, or large (larger than average). They won’t send “girl” colors or prints unless requested. If you prefer girlier prints, all you have to do is call or email and they’ll be on it like ants on candy.
I have one of these kid-sized sling packed in my hospital bag to give to Sy when she comes to meet Version 2.0. It is designed to carry dolls, trucks, dinosaurs, etc. Sy spends most of her time trying to tuck her most beloved lovie into her shirt to carry it around, so I think Jo Jo will fit in just perfectly in this little sling. It’s made by Hotslings, so you could of course have matching slings if you so desired. And then you could get matching Laura Ashley dresses and really paint the town red. Do they still make Laura Ashley clothing for kids? Ah yes, they do.
Anyway, the cutie pie little sling is shoulder-tacked for easy use. One size. Fits toddlers and preschoolers best. I’ll let you know Sy and her lovie, Jo Jo, like it.
Not too bad at $15.00 in the “Gifts” section over at the Nurture Center.
Sy’s aunt got her this wicked fun teeter totter for her birthday. Part of their Naturally Playful® line, the little ride is made by Step2, the geniuses behind my favorite sand and water table.
It has two wide, contoured seats with easy-grip handle bars plus it can accommodate an additional rider in middle. The maximum weight 120 lbs, so (3) three year olds can easily take it on. We put it out at Sy’s birthday party and it was a huge hit. She and her pals have a three-person see saw at school, so they understand how to ride as a trio. But the great thing about this one is that it’s light enough so the kiddo can sit by themselves in the middle, and they can rock back and forth like a rocking horse.
I’ll start by saying I was not going to be the kind of mother who let her daughter watch Go, Diego Go or Dora the (Totally Irritating) Explorer. I was only going to buy wooden toys and never let her within 100 yards of the golden arches. And then I actually became a mother and lookee here! My daughter is still alive after her first (and not last) hash brown and has clearly licked her share of plastic toys. I’m still disappointed in myself that I ever let her lay eyes on Diego and Dora. Not because I think their message is horrible (Lots o’ girl power! Learn about endangered animals!), but mainly because whenever she watches one of those shows, she wants me to sit right on down next to her and enjoy it, too. It’s 23 minutes I’d, uh, rather spend otherwise, but let’s just say I’ve written my share of reviews for this site while sitting next to her as we chant “...This rough and tough adventurer is workin’ all the time! Diego...Diego…Diego…Go, Diego, Go!” Excuse me while I go hit my head against the wall.
That said, my kid has actually learned a lot about the rain forest from Diego. The other day she looked at Roger and said, “Daddy, iguanas keep their food in their tails.” And she was right on. I am pretty sure neither Roger nor I knew that iguanas stored fat in their tails for hibernation. Diego:1; Mom and Dad:0.
So when Micky got Kara the Loud As Hell Rescue Center by Fisher-Price, Sy just about went nuts. She begged me to go to her house pretty much around the clock so she could play with it. I have to admit, while it’s one big ass piece of plastic, it’s a cool toy. Don’t tell anyone I said that, OK?
We’ve had the Boon Frog Pod bath toy receptacle for about 2.5 years. I think it’s a mediocre device. Because it’s on the wall, it’s sort of out of sight, out of mind. I forget it’s there (even though it’s huge) and we tend to play with the same four cups and shark we play with every night at bath. Today I went in to get bath ready and the poor ol’ frog lay at the bottom of the tub. The stickum finally lost its stick. It’s pretty easy to get some new stickum, but I’m not sure I want to put it back up. The toys stack up and it startles our guests when they shower, although that’s the fun part.
Micky suggested her favorite - the Toy Hub Organizer Tray by One Step Ahead.
Here’s why she likes it:
Jenny was taking her girls for a walk the other day and and passed by another couple taking their baby out for a stroll with the grandparents. Only they were pulling the stroller backwards to keep the sun out of the babe’s eyes. Clearly, they needed a Kiddopotamus Rayshade.
Here’s what I like about my Rayshade: You can easily pull it over the top of your sun canopy (have to have one to make it work), and attach it with the hook and loop velcro straps. Insta-shade. The thing is HUGE to give your kid all the shade they need, so it takes a few spins around the block to figure out how much shade they need and how to achieve that and still allow them some sort of view out of the stroller. The first time I used it, as usual, I did not read the directions so I had a hard time figuring out how to attach it. It has four straps and as long as you have the front curve of the hoop facing out, you’re golden.
Sy is not a girlie-girl at all. She likes to pick her own outfits in the morning and they generally include stripes and spots and mismatched socks, sometimes with a dress on top for color. She usually looks like the pile from the bottom of the dryer, but I think it’s fabulous. The only princess she knows of is the Paper Bag one. But now, at the cusp of three, she is really getting into dress up. She clonks around in her plastic high heels and refuses to take off her “butterfly wings” that we have. They are a sad pair, those wings. Hand-me-downs like most of her girlie dress up gear, they are torn and limp, threatening to unravel at any minute.
I feel I owe it to her to get her a pair of really fluffy, girlie, pink wings for her birthday. But where to start? I grew up wearing black and listened to New Wave. I don’t know how to be a fairy princess or even where to look. So I called on Dawn from Pink With Sparkles to review her favorite fairy accoutrements for us. Her picks after the jump.
Someone mentions the word Spring and I am already daydreaming about Summer. So much for living in the present, eh? It doesn’t help that all you have to do is walk into a Target to be completely assaulted by rows after row of Summer! Fun! Specials! Either way, I’ve begun daydreaming of warm, lazy days and dusting off some of our outdoor gear. Sy’s all time favorite outdoor toy is her Step 2 Naturally Playful Sand and Water Activity Center. Dumb name, Step2, but a wicked cool device.
Sy’s school has these puzzles from Lakeshore Learning and they are often one of her first stops when she arrives in her classroom.
Here’s why I like these puzzles.
Sy’s rounding the bend towards three years old and her old Melissa and Doug puzzles are becoming a little too simple for her. The bigger, eight to twelve piece puzzles are a still a little daunting, so we needed something in between.
Like any self-respecting 2 1/2 year old, Sy is obsessed with the mail. Getting the mail, harassing our very kind postal carrier, sending the mail, checking out the mailboxes at the post office, ad nauseum. Ripping the important tax documents from my unsuspecting hands, running away gleefully and “mailing” them somewhere in the house has been her favorite past time this week. Sy’s her name, mail’s her game. She had been using the Learning Tower as her mail box, but it irked her a bit that her invented mail box had no real cover on it. Of course I should have just let her make stuff up, especially after reading that NPR article about the downfall of our kids due to all those thematic toys out there. But no, I’d been checking out the Melissa and Doug Mailbox and opted for that. Sorry about your brain, kid. Mama just got you a new toy.
So it was a big week in our house, at least before we got the plague. Sy got to borrow Kara’s illustrious and much coveted ball popper. She literally squealed with excitement when Micky carried that thing through the door. Micky placed it on the coffee table while Kara and Sy started dancing, clapping and shrieking a chorus of YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY! We just stood back and watched the chaos ensue.
The premise of this toy is pretty simple. Put the plastic balls on the spiral popper track, turn on, push down plunger button thing, have ears assaulted by noise level, watch balls fly out, squeal a lot, try to catch them, repeat.
Hey, look what my friend Micky found online yesterday! Robeez is finally coming out with an outdoor shoe called Robeez Tredz. They’ll be available as of February 4th. Too bad Sy’s outgrown them because they have some great designs.
Seriously, this is one of the cutest toys I’ve been sucked into buying in a long time. This set is the perfect blend of Tea Party and, as my little almost-two-year-old calls it, “Happy To You” Party, as well as a great accessory for a play kitchen. And I love the color scheme, and the website from which I bought it...the detail...and I would probably buy it again, based on its Sheer Cuteness and Uniqueness. But there are some issues; hence three stars out of five. Let me start with the virtues:
• This is an adorable tea set with many play pieces and lots of accessories: little wooden tea bags on a string, sugar cubes, cake with removable candles…
• It appeals to your child who not only loves Tea Parties but has Special Affection for Birthdays. Oh, that’s me too. Exactly. It comes with cake wedges with painted sprinkles on a plate, along with spoons, tea cups, a tea pot, etc.
Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut:
I have two daughters, two and four, both of whom love to “help” me cook and as well as to sneak water into their bedroom in various containers to make...well, messes. They’ve also outgrown a play kitchen that served us well (the Little Tykes Discover Sounds Kitchen, which is great, by the way, for tight spaces and 1-to-3 year olds. We had an earlier, less gadgety version than this one.
Time for an upgrade (Did I mention that my OWN kitchen needs an upgrade too? Anyway...). I spent quite a bit of time looking at play kitchens and comparing reviews and sizes and features. Here were my specifications:
1. Made of wood. We have plenty of plastic toys, so I am not a die-hard wooden-toy mama, but I don’t like the big, NOISY plastic kitchens out there. They remind me of bad model-home kitchens: overdone and So About To Look Dated.
2. Big enough to be interesting, but small enough to not Overwhelm MY Small Kitchen.
3. Removable Sink Basin. This was a must, as my daughters were going to pour water on this toy whether it held water or not. I wanted to be able to clean this part and carry it away from my overzealous Aquarians if need be.
4. One piece. While I like some of the kitchens that have separate refrigerators and ovens, they tend to take up more space, and rather needlessly, in my book.
5. Two cooks=not too many. I have two budding chefs who want to play at the same time. I looked for a kitchen with space for more than one little culinary genius--and I liked kitchens that functioned like islands, and which my girls could walk around, but I DON’T HAVE ROOM FOR AN ISLAND IN MY OWN KITCHEN, so finding free floor space for the toy was not going to work.
6. Less than $200. That requirement immediately disqualified anything from Pottery Barn, for example.
Enter the Kidkraft Retro Blue Kitchen, which we all love, kids and parents and neighborhood children alike. Some reasons it’s great:
Between all the houses Sy plays in and pees in, we’ve tried out about six little training type potties. We have two potty seats that fit over the big toilet (to be reviewed tomorrow) and two stand alone potties, both made by Baby Bjorn. One I like, the other one, not so much.
I do not like the Baby Bjorn Little Potty, I do not like it, Sam I am. It seems way too small for a kiddo to sit comfortably on. The kids always look all hunched and scrunched up, and their bottoms never look like they fit on the seat. Lots of time pee comes spraying out the front when one of the boys in our crew sits on it. If you potty train your little one at say, nine months, it’d probably fit them just fine. Maybe it’d be good on the road in emergencies, but I find this one to be messy, too small, and not worth the ten bucks. Clearly, I bought this one first. I keep it around for days when we have lots of kids playing here, but otherwise, it’s been banished to the bathroom closet.
The Baby Bjorn Potty Chair, however, is a much better mousetrap.
